Haitian Exiles May Add To Chaos

April 01, 1986|By Mark J. Kurlansky, Special to The Tribune.

NEW YORK — Exiled Haitian political activists in the U.S., Canada and Latin America are returning home to work for change in the government and to campaign in elections yet to be scheduled by the new ruling junta.

In Haiti, politicians in and out of government fear that these returning exiles will further confuse an already unstable situation, marked last week by antigovernment demonstrations by students and strikes by public and private employees.

Gregoire Eugene, founder of Haiti`s Social Christian Party who was arrested and exiled in 1980 during a round-up of intellectuals by the Duvalier regime, has said he opposes allowing the exiles to return until after elections are held.

In part the problem is a matter of numbers. There are 400,000 Haitians in New York City, and the total number of Haitian exiles may be 1.5 million. Their sudden return would put a tremendous strain on the bankrupt economy of the nation of 6 million people.

Many economic refugees have said they will not return.

``How could I go back?`` said a refugee who now works as a New York taxi driver. ``Here I have a job. I earn money.``

But there are hundreds of former revolutionaries, radical journalists and rebellious priests, many of whom have remained active in Haiti`s political opposition during more than a decade of exile, who now are planning to move their operations to their island homeland.

Ray Joseph, editor of the Haiti-Observateur, which is published in Brooklyn, said that since 1968 he and other exile leaders in New York have trained 150 Haitians for political roles and most of them are now trying to return.

Joseph and his brother, Leo, are planning to move their newspaper to the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, and they have begun conducting interviews to select a candidate to support in the yet-to-be-announced elections.

Among the returning exiles whose candidacy they might support is Marc Bazin, a World Bank official.

``He is very impressive,`` Ray Joseph said. ``The exiles will go for someone who believes in the democratic process. That is what the paper will fight for.``

Many activist clergymen in the exile community also are seeking to return and have begun talking with the bishops in Haiti about finding parishes there. One such priest is Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste, an outspoken leader of the 60,000-member Haitian community in Miami, who says he hopes to find a parish in his native town of Les Cayes.

He says he does not want a political role; he simply wants to be a priest. But interviews with Father Jean-Juste and other priests leave the strong impression they intend to push the church, which played an important role in the Feb. 7 ouster of Duvalier, to even greater activism.

Father Jean-Juste said it is his duty ``to make everyone aware of their civic responsibilities.``

Another influential exile expected to play a key role when he returns to Haiti is Rev. William Smarth, one of nine priests expelled from Haiti in 1969 for their work with youths.

Rev. Smith, who was a leader in a New York group called the Haitian Fathers, said: ``I am going to do the same thing as I do here: fighting for human rights, giving people the responsibility to act, fighting for a new society in Haiti. That is the role of the church.``

Father Smarth has called for a new Haitian constitution limiting the power of the presidency and for a new elected legislature.

Ironically, one of the more moderate positions being taken among the exiles trying to return is that of Bernard Sansaricq, who has been associated with armed revolutionary movements and who unsuccessfully tried to invade Haiti in January, 1982.

``I have spent 22 years fighting the former government,`` Sansaricq said in a telephone interview from his home in San Jose, Costa Rica. ``I think this government should be helped.``

He said the leaders of his movement decided earlier this month, ``We are no longer soldiers; we are diplomats.``

He has not called for removing all former Duvalier backers from the government or changing the ruling junta. ``If it goes, who will replace it?`` he said. Instead, he wants to establish his National Haitian Party as a nonviolent political party to run himself and others as candidates on the national and local level.

The Haitian government appears to be doing all it can to discourage exiles from returning.

Some, such as radio journalist Marcuse Garcia, who has lived in Miami since 1980, have great difficulty getting a visa from the Haitian government. Another activist, Vitor Juste, obtained a visa but was held for six hours at a Port-au-Prince police station when he returned on Feb. 14. He believes the government is still using a book of so-called undesirables compiled by the Duvalier regime.